Faces Of Tbi

JoAnne Jones is Professor Emeritus at Springfield College in Massachusetts, where she worked for twenty-five years. While at Springfield College, Dr. Jones served as Associate Dean of the School of Human Services and Acting Dean of the School of Social Work. Before Springfield College, she was an Associate Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an Assistant Professor of Social Welfare at the University of Calgary, School of Social Welfare. Her teaching and research focused primarily on social justice issues. In addition to teaching, she has consulted with public and private organizations in relation to diversity, inclusiveness, and excellence. She is a cofounder of the firm Diversityworks Consulting. Find her book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/34rWAMb

Vernon Williams, MD, is a board-certified sports neurologist and founding director of the Center for Sports Neurology and Pain Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Kerlan-Jobe Institute in Los Angeles, CA and team neurologist for the Los Angeles Rams.

Photographer Martha Hoelzer explores the intersection of art and bodily trauma through “What Lies Beneath Concussion.” In a series of images and video, she considers how multiple concussions have impacted her visual perception of everyday items. Her work asks the viewer to consider the question or how—and if—we can render our experiences so that others can understand what they cannot see. Hoelzer earned her degree in American Studies and German from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She’s worked as a photographer nationally and internationally since 1998, and has won accolades for her work as part of the 61st, 62nd and 63rd Annual Juried Exhibition Durham Arts Guild show, the Telluride Art + Architecture Tour, and the Carolina Global Photography Contest. You can learn more about her work at marthahoelzer.com Episode sponsored by: www.TheFunctionalNeurologyCenter.com

Rita has worked extensively with kids and adults suffering loss due to parental and/or spousal completion of suicide, murder and death due to natural causes.  She has participated as a member of multiple crisis teams in response to traumatic events involving adolescents from regional communities. Rita Co-Directed a season at Camp Erin for children suffering the loss of a loved one.  She created and directed kid’s camps for the Richard Lambert Foundation as well as one-on-one counselling for children, adults and families experiencing relationship loss due to death.  Rita also mentors young counselors and practitioners who routinely interact with those experiencing grief.  Rita’s thoughts and analysis of the grieving process and its parallels with traumatic brain injury can be found in chapter 7 of the recently published book by Joanne Cohen: Getting Hit, Getting Up, Moving Beyond - My Journey Through Brain Injury.  Additionally, Rita delivers workshops for caregivers focusing on compassion fatigue, self-care a

Paula Walters is the Founder and President of Standing Courageous, Inc. In her role, Paula has developed and leads the team that provides education and awareness about domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse. Drawing on her experience as a survivor of child abuse, domestic violence with strangulation and sexual assault, Paula specializes in educating about the psychology of an abuser and victim, the impacts of abuse, and the role individuals have in stopping the cycle of violence and aiding in a victim’s recovery. Paula has joined the State of Ohio Attorney Generals Homicide Prevention Team in training on domestic violence and non-fatal strangulation. Paula has been in the fire service and EMS since 1999. She became a Paramedic in 2003 after attending The Medical College of Ohio where she received the Clinical Excellence Award. She became an EMS instructor in 2009. Paula has worked in Ohio, North Carolina and Louisiana as a Paramedic in a variety of EMS and public service capacities. Paula experi

Today Josh Perry is a happy, healthy 30-year-old man with his whole life ahead of him. Nine years ago, shortly after achieving a lifelong goal of becoming a professional BMX athlete, he received his first brain tumor diagnosis. Josh had a meningioma, a benign tumor that caused intense headaches and significantly impaired vision. His tumor was successfully removed through an open craniotomy, an invasive surgical procedure that requires opening of the skull. His recovery was slow but within two months Josh was back on the BMX circuit. He felt he’d been given a second chance and took advantage of every opportunity to compete, travel, perform and give back to the community. As one of a handful of people to have survived three separate brain tumors, Josh believes it is his mission to help educate people with brain tumors about their options. He founded The Josh Perry Foundation as his way of giving back to those with brain tumors, brain injuries, and other brain disorders. Nearly 78,000 new cases of primary brai

Kathryn Vigness is a speaker, author, and life coach. She is a #boymama, yogi, and lover of all things happy. As an avid writer, Kathryn is a featured contributor to multiple online journals and is the author of her memoir Growing Wild and the inspirational journal #soulprompt. After spending over a decade trying to find herself and shapeshifting from college graduate to young professional to wife to mother to entrepreneur and being everything to everyone, Kathryn made a conscious decision to stop living in someday and start living today. That is when Kathryn was able to drop all of the hats and masks that she was wearing, meet herself where she was at and move forward in the direction of her dreams. Coincidentally, Kathryn has been writing these life lessons down and sharing them to for others to do the same. Kathryn’s only goal at the end of her life is to have lived a life serving others. She is a fireproof change agent and a resiliency advocate. She is living proof that life gives us what we always

Damien Rosen survived a snowboarding accident at the age of 13 which catapulted him into a lifelong struggle with Traumatic Brain Injury. Through years of persistence and a relentless dedication to personal growth and leadership, Damien became managing partner at a Miami-based software services company, growing the business to over 15,000 business clients across 7 states. Damien is also a strategic advisor for a startup that provides employee safety technology to hotels. In 2000, Damien graduated Magna Cum Laude from Babson College and lived abroad during a one-year study program at Konan University in Kobe, Japan. He is conversational in Spanish and remembers the days when he was comfortable communicating in Japanese. He lives in Miami, Florida with his fiancé Ivette, and Hunter, their 80-pound chocolate lab who lounges by his desk as the office mascot. Damien enjoys yoga, loves frisbee and his ultimate passion is motorcycle riding through the mountains of western North Carolina. Episode sponsore

Dr. Heidi Hill, an audiologist, is an expert in the evaluation and management of hearing disorders. Dr. Hill has owned and operated Hearing Health Clinic, an audiology private practice in Osseo, MN for more than 12 years. Dr. Hill specializes in not just peripheral hearing loss, but also in tinnitus (ringing in the ears) and central auditory processing problems that commonly occur after a head injury.  Episode sponsored by: www.TheFunctionalNeurologyCenter.com 

Jamie grew up on the East Coast, USA, skiing since she could walk. By the time Jamie was 18 years old, she had won Junior World Championships in New Zealand and moved to Utah to become a professional slopestyle and halfpipe skier. Jamie traveled the world competing at world class events like X-Games and Dew Tour. Jamie crashed through glass ceilings by becoming the first women to flip off a rail and double backflip in a competition. In 2015, Jamie crashed in Whistler and went into a coma. She lived, recovered, went back to skiing and adventuring the world, bringing a unique, inspiring story with her. Jamie was the first patient in North America to receive an oxygen and pressure analyzing brain bolt procedure at Vancouver General Hospital, VGH continues to use the procedure on critical coma patients and their success rate has more then doubled. Her doctors learned about the “brain bolt” procedure one month prior to Jamie’s arrival at VGH. Jamie is graduating college in May, 2019 and wants to grow her

Chuck Rockey is a Princeton-educated engineer turned life coach with a passion for helping clients achieve inner happiness and joy though enriching their personal relationships. These steps forward can be a key factor not only achieving peace of mind but in overcoming heath issues ranging from from depression to anxiety. Chuck also facilitates groups where people build community as well as their capacity for vulnerability and empathy while having a lot of fun! When not helping people build powerfully nourishing relationships, Chuck can be found in the yoga studio where he assists his students in one-on-one sessions to expand their physical development through various asanas (body postures) and encourages them to hone their inner teacher so they can carry their practice into the world.  Chuck also weaves in an in-depth knowledge of Buddhist psychology, Zen and meditation practices to his yoga teachings. Chuck was a tech leader and entrepreneur in Silicon Valley for 25 years when a stroke left him tempora

Mimi Hayes is a New York-based comedian and author of the memoir "I'll Be OK, It's Just a Hole in My Head." A former high school teacher, Hayes wrote her first humorous memoir while recovering from a traumatic head injury at the age of twenty-two. She is currently adapting the book into a one-woman show for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival as well as a comedic TV series. Catch her newest show "Mimi and The Brain," a comedic neuroscience podcast, available now on all streaming devices.  Find her book on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2KvOHyx Episode sponsored by: Midwest Functional Neurology Center  

In addition to being a Mom, wife, and digital marketing professional, Markelle is a brain injury survivor who hopes to partner with others to turn brain injury awareness into action that helps others during recovery. She has read every book ever published about Brain Injury and refuses to give in to the theory that recovery ends after one year.  Episode sponsored by: Midwest Functional Neurology Center

Shane Etter is a former high tech sales professional who started writing fiction to improve his brain after suffering a stroke. He has six published novels including a series of supernatural thrillers—Bottom Dwellers, Mind Dwellers and Trail Dwellers, set in north Georgia and New York City and A Brain In Third Person, about a serial killer in Atlanta, A War In The Bronx, about rival drug gangs in NYC and A Brain In Third Person II, The Return of The Bad Penny.  His first novel, Bottom Dwellers, was named the best murder mystery of 2012 by the late publicist/agent/author John Weaver. Shane was born, raised and educated in Mississippi and has called greater Atlanta home for almost 30 years. His writing has been compared to the greats Jim Thompson and Cornell Woolrich. Known for his surprise endings, his latest, Devil’s Sympathy, about a serial killer who’s a writing professor at England’s Oxford University,  raises the bar to new levels. Shane is a member of Charles Clifford Brooks’ The Southern Collec

Rachel Butler-Green is a Health Entrepreneur based in Los Angeles, CA. As a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist, she spent 10 years growing her business and working with leading physical therapists and chiropractors. At the age of 30, during the height of her career, Rachel suffered a rare stroke due to a brain hemorrhage called an Arterial Ventricular Malformation. She was left paralyzed unable to walk, see, or fend for herself. Determined to get back to where she was, she spent the next few years of recovery remapping her brain and strengthening her body. Rachel leveraged her philosophy of “fit mind fit body” to create a new framework for her physical training company, while simultaneously learning how to build a startup in technology. She used her therapy dog for regular walking and emotional support, which led to the launch of Good Dog - a gamified dog walking app that rewards dog owners for giving their dogs proper walk times.  Rachel’s overall mission is to help others create and mainta

Dr. Shidlofsky completed his Pre-Optometry studies at the University of Texas at Austin in 1984. He then attended Southern College of Optometry in Memphis, Tenn. where he received his BS in 1986 and OD in 1988. Upon graduation, he moved back to to the Dallas area to begin his practice. Dr. S, as he is known around the office, has been very active in Neuro-developmental Optometry for most of his years in practice. He has developed and integrated many unique therapies that have helped thousands of children who have struggled in school due to vision problems often seen in: ADD/ADHD, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Sensory Processing Disorders as well as some of the classic vision problems related to focusing, eye teaming, eye movement skills, visual spatial skills and vision perception issues. He has expanded his work to include those with traumatic and acquired brain injury, stroke and other neurological processing problems. In addition, he works with several professional sports teams in the Dallas area as well as

Brandon Nutt, DC, is a dedicated and compassionate chiropractor helping patients from the Dallas-Fort Worth area at The Wellness Institute of Dallas. Dr. Nutt and his team provide natural and minimally invasive treatment options for musculoskeletal conditions at their office in Dallas. Dr. Nutt specializes in functional medicine and functional neurology and offers chiropractic care, soft tissue therapy, nutritional counseling and supplementation, rehabilitation, GyroStim, lifestyle coaching, and athletic injury recovery and prevention. Dr. Nutt was raised in Plano, Texas, and holds two bachelor’s degrees in anatomy and health and wellness. While earning his Doctor of Chiropractic at Parker University in Dallas, Dr. Nutt served as class president and tutored fellow students in anatomy, physiology, neurology, and biomechanics. When he graduated, Dr. Nutt was awarded various leadership and service awards due to his commitment to education and patient care. Throughout his life, Dr. Nutt played hockey and st

Dr. Shane Steadman, DC, DACNB, DCBCN, FACFN, FAAIM, CNS, CCCN, DCCN is an expert in chiropractic neurology and functional medicine. Dr. Steadman is a leading practitioner in the area of concussions and brain injuries and works with patients in Denver, Colorado and around the United States. Because of the extensive education, training and success rate Dr. Steadman has achieved, he is one of the most sought after health practitioners for patients dealing with tough conditions, as well as those who have gone to doctor to doctor without answers and solutions. Dr. Steadman is also speaker, regularly appearing on TV and radio programs, sharing his expertise and advice about concussions, brain injuries and a host of other conditions, such as: nutrition, stress management, vertigo, migraines and other tough cases. Dr. Steadman is also a lecturer for Apex Energetics and has been so since 2006. He teaches and educates other physicians and practitioners about the testing and clinical applications of Functional End

Joelle Leek is a sophomore at Syracuse University. In her freshman year of high school (2015), she was diagnosed with Post Concussive Syndrome after sustaining a whiplash injury during a basketball game. For the next year, her life was dictated by this injury, and it was during that time that she discovered her passion for Concussion Awareness. Since then, she has been working in her community to bring awareness to an injury that millions of people suffer from every year. 

Karley graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Therapeutic Recreation at Grand Valley State University in 2017. She has previous work experience in a physical inpatient sub-acute rehabilitation center for older adults. She loves having the opportunity to positively impact the lives of individuals through their personal leisure and recreation pursuits, goals, and new interests. Thus helping pave the way to the ability and independence to enjoy their hobbies and interests is such an amazing journey. Returning happiness and enjoyment, feelings of empowerment and success, impacting the individual, friends and families. Karley is a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist (CTRS), Certified Dementia Practitioner (CDP), Certified Clinical Love Your Brain Yoga Instructor, and is in the process of becoming a Certified Brain Injury Specialist (CBIS). She is the Co-Chair of the American Therapeutic Recreation Association’s (ATRA’s) Physical Rehabilitation and Medical Section. She had the opportunity to work as a pa